Images of George Washington as either military hero or statesman circulated widely during the first decades of the United States. The miniaturist and enamelist William Russell Birch executed around 60 enamels of Washington after a portrait by Gilbert Stuart, which Stuart allowed him to copy. Birch later had the opportunity to present Washington with one of the enamels, a moment he recounted in his autobiography: “I waited upon the Gen’l with a note that an artist waited the Honour of showing personally to the Gen’l a specimen of his talents. When I saw the Gen’l I put the picture into his hands. He looked at it steadfastly, . . . till feeling myself awkward I begun the history of Enamel Painting, which by the time I got through he complimented me upon the beauty of my work.” This is the only known version to be transformed into a snuffbox. It was owned by the Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who gallantly fought on the side of the American colonists. It is a testament to the personal relationship between the two men, each who became embodiments of republican ideals.